As the country sat down waiting for the BBC News At Ten to begin on Tuesday night... so was newscaster Huw Edwards.

A technical blunder meant poor Huw was literally sitting in silence as the cameras rolled live at the start of the programme.

But this didn't just last a few seconds. There were just over three minutes of viewers watching Huw awkwardly play with his pen and scribble down notes before he got the nod to start reading the news.

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If you watch closely around the 3.00 mark, you can even see a load of people rushing around in the newsroom behind him.

At least, that's what was going down on the BBC News channel.

Over on BBC One, they were a little sharper after realising the technical glitch.

Instead of just exposing Silent Huw to the nation, BBC One displayed the title card: "We are sorry for the break in this programme and are trying to correct the fault."

An announcer also stalled for time and went through some upcoming shows on the channel.

But what BBC One viewers couldn't get over was the sax music being played over the title card. Or should that be "porn" music?

Still, at least the News At Ten team helped explain what exactly went wrong.

Programme editor Paul Royall tweeted: "FYI technical system crash seconds before 10. Director had to switch to a back-up system ASAP. @huwbbc doing great job #BBCNewsTen."

Producer Colleen Harris added it was "all hands on deck behind the scenes".

And if anyone deserved a can of ale after that hiccup, it was poor Huw himself.

"I think I'm going to enjoy this little beauty after that Ten. Iechyd da!" he tweeted.

From: Digital Spy